Sock Yarn Weights

I’ve been reading with interest Polly’s posts on actual sock yarn weights versus the stated weight on the ballband. It got me curious, so of course I had to do some experimentation of my own.

I grabbed some skeins of sock yarn out of my stash at random, and started weighing. My findings are presented in the table below, the format of which I shamelessly stole from Polly:

Brand

Stated Weight

Actual Weight

Variance

Opal Handpaint

100gr

94gr

-6

Arucania Ranco

100gr

100gr

0

Socks That Rock Lightweight

128gr

126gr

-2

Socks That Rock Lightweight

128gr

124gr

-4

Socks That Rock Lightweight

128gr

123gr

-5

Socks That Rock Lightweight

128gr

127gr

-1

Socks That Rock Lightweight

128gr

123gr

-5

Socks That Rock Lightweight

128gr

124gr

-4

Dream in Color Smooshy

113gr

119gr

+6

Dream in Color Smooshy

113gr

130gr

+17

Dream in Color Smooshy

113gr

122gr

+9

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock

113gr

117gr

+4

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock

113gr

117gr

+4

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock

113gr

116gr

+3

Fleece Artist Merino

115gr

122gr

+7

Fleece Artist Merino

115gr

127gr

+12

Fleece Artist Merino

115gr

130gr

+15

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

50gr

0

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

50gr

0

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

53gr

+3

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

54gr

+4

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

51gr

+1

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

51gr

+1

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

49gr

-1

Claudia Handpaint Fingering

50gr

49gr

-1

ShibuiKnits Fingering

50gr

53gr

+3

ShibuiKnits Fingering

50gr

53gr

+3

ShibuiKnits Fingering

50gr

54gr

+4

ShibuiKnits Fingering

50gr

54gr

+4

We had a discussion while at Graves Mountain, I think about things that affect sock yarn weight. I assume that humidity and altitude play a part. Someone suggested that yarn weighed pre-dyeing would be different from its weight post-dyeing.

I managed to tear myself away from weighing skeins of sock yarn to do some knitting. I did knit a swatch from my Dream in Color Classy on 2.75mm needles.

Comments

That is really wild… I might have to do some experimenting of my own. It really lets you see how different brands work. I mean, all of the str was less than it’s supposed to be… makes you feel a little jipped, doesn’t it? Talk about commitment though, weighing all those and making a chart. Thanks! How are you feeling?

For my graduate class I have a whole design of experiments going with knitting. I am comparing the obvious with the yarn weight, and needle size. My mystery variable is if I change gauge on wood/metal. I made 8 swathches but haven’t had time to measure. Since I used cotton I am going to do a pre wash verse post wash comparison as well…. Yay to experimenting with knitting.

Yes humidity does play a part. It is reccommended not to buy yarn by weight, but by yardage. I have never had my yarn weigh different from before to after dyeing as long as the yarn is completely dry, but that has been my experience.

I know that this might sound stupid, but did you weigh the yarns w/o the band/lableling?

Quite an interesting experiment. As I dust off my memory from science class, if properly used, grams shouldn’t be affected from one altitude to another, only actual weight. Grams actually is a measurement of mass. While, pounds and ounces, measure weight. That is why we would all weigh less on the moon (for example), but our mass would be unchanged.

Does that make any sense? Probably didn’t explain it well on my part. Anyway, so my thought is that the grams should be a proper indicator of the amount of mass. I do think humidity would make a difference, only slightly, though.

As commented by Tonia, I would prefer to buy based on yardage, too, but if yarn manufacturers aren’t getting the grams/mass correct, can we trust them when it comes to yardage?? Anyone want to try to experiment with that, too? (just kidding!)

This may sound a little strange but here goes. If the yarn was measured by the yardage/metreage that it’s sold by would this have an effect on the weight. The standard would be whats stated on the ball band but slight differences may occur? Just a thought, I would be interested to hear from others.

I think it was interesting that you decided to
weigh your yarn. I never thought of doing
that. I use to be a great package decorator
and bought a lot of ribbon. I found that
our Michael’s store always had the right
amount but Garden Ridge ribbon was always
short. Now I know you are not interested
in ribbon, but I wanted you to know that there are other places you get shortchanged.
Your knitting is beautiful even though I know
your back is probably bothering you. I hope
by now you are feeling better.

The variations in weight that you determined aren’t actually very much, always less than 10% of the indicated weight. Do you know the tolerance on your balance? It is likely that your balance is not made to weigh with greater accuracy than +/- 5-10%. Are you using a calibrated standard weight to check the weight? Of course not! But that’s what scientists have to do to assure that a weight is correct. Anyway, the data are interesting, but don’t necessarily prove that any given manufacturer is providing less or more than the amount advertised.

Nothing to do with the current posts. I just want to say thank you for having a great blog.

I started reading it from the beginning a few weeks ago, and it has kept me entertained, horrified (due to some of the negative comments you’ve received – some people have got major nerve), and even your cat has managed to grow on me (I only like people’s pets from a distance, especially really big dogs).

The best three things U
1) You don’t take crap off of anybody, and don’t let them get away with rudeness. It aggravates me more to see bad behavior unaddressed. Your readers don’t let them get away with it either. Kudos to all of you!

2) You knit beautiful items, and I don’t have to wait forever to see the end result. I love how effortless you make this seem!

3) Reading your blog while I knit my first (and last) poncho makes knitting it a whole lot more fun.

Given the stretchiness of yarn and that a skein is a ‘wind-off’ rather than a weighed amount (at least for commercial companies of any size), I think we knitters can grant a ’10% grace weight’ – so that any weight high or low within 10% of the stated weight is OK. I also wondered if you took the ball bands off when you weighed or if all the skeins you weighed had some sort of tag or ball band?
I recently corresponded with Cheryl Potter of Cherry Tree Hill yarns about their Jumbo Loop Mohair. In previous years this yarn was sold as 185 yards per 8 ounce skein. I noticed my new skein was err, memory is failing, 217 I think, or 223 yards per 8 ounces. I wanted to use the same pattern I had used before and wondered if CTH or their supplying mill had changed the yarn. She told me the yarn was the same, but that CTH re-measures their yarns each year and that their new skeiner must be giving out some extra yards per weight. (I interpret this as the yarn is stretched differently in the skeining). She also said that yarn mills do not re-state their yardage per weight unless there is a 20% difference (I was surprised the difference had to be this large). I don’t have Cheryl’s e-mail any longer, and this is my recollection of what she told me, so if I’ve mis-stated, blame me not Cheryl. And the Jumbo Mohair did ‘behave’ the same way in the pattern I’d used before.

Fascinating. I’m also wondering just how much the yardage would be affected, although I’m not going to start measuring it out just yet! But for those of us with, ahem, good-sized feet, might it make a difference?

Hope you are continuing to feel better—the socks are looking lovely, as always! (And so is Lucy, as always!)

I go more by yardage than by weight. For my own yarns I wind them all the same, but if they are a tiny bit different they would weigh different weights. Yardage is the most accurate way to do things. Also, I like to make sure there is plenty so I add 5-10 extra yards just to make sure.

Really interesting couple of posts, between you and Polly – I see in Polly’s pictures she weighed with the label on – do you think this would make much difference?
It never really makes a difference to me as I only knit socks for myself (poor wee lonely knitted with no friends who would truly appreciate the value of a knitted sock!) and I only have size 3 feet (a EU 36 – not sure of the USA size) so I always have loads left – probably enough for a pair of footsies!
I think Juliet above was getting a bit mixed up – I’m sure that grams do measure weight, not mass – they are just the metric equivalent of pounds and ounces. Mass is an area not a weight.

I was at a knitting retreat recently and the topic of weight vs. yardage came up. As it happens, it’s the dyeing that makes the yarn heavier. Some dyes are heavier than others (Jonelle from SWTC said that turquoise was quite heavy). Since manufacturers are required to have an accurate weight, the yardage will vary. Who would’ve thunk it?

That is interesting information, but it doesn’t really have additional correlating data (most of which has already been mentioned).

Of course, what I find more interesting is how much yarn is actually used when making socks. My favorite basic socks were (iirc) 69 grams, leaving me enough to potentially make ankle socks (2 pairs out of a single ball of Trekking = not bad at all).

I think darker dyes weigh more too. When J&S used to sell their jumperweight yarn in 28 gram increments, they used to say that the yardage varied – at least I think it was their site that said that. The darker colors had less yardage to 28 grams than the lighter colors.

First of all, I’m so glad to see that you seem to be recovering well after your surgery. What a blessing!

And what an interesting topic today. I had not really considered weighing the different brands of yarn to see how they compare to what is stated on the ball band. The comments make for some interesting reading as well. I always learn so much by visiting your blog.

Lastly, a question, hopefully not answered before (I did a search of your blog and didn’t find anything on it). When you do the M1 for your toe increases, do you make them a mirror image of each other? Or do you just do the same thing for both sides? I know you said you have been increasing at the gusset by k1f&b. I was just curious about the toe increases.

Ooh, cool chart. It’s surprising that so many skeins end up below the stated weight. You’d think, like most products you buy, it’d be weighted at the time of packaging to ensure accuracy. I don’t really buy the whole thing about dying since I am pretty sure that batches of yarn are generally dyed at quantities sufficient for a cone and are then wound off. My 2. I suppose humidity and altitude could play a part. Hard to say.

Quick preference question for you. I notice your diagonal lace pattern isn’t flipped for the second sock. Do ever worry about making socks symmetrical when they have directional patterns?

I have a digital scale at home and although I never did this experiment, I’ve started weighing hanks to split them before I knit my socks. An idea I beleive I got from Wendy. I’ve always wondered whether rolling the yarn affects the weight. Like, if you do it by hand which makes a denser ball with less air, will it be heavier? I tell myself the difference is negligable so I can move on.
Those postage stamps are cool.

“Strictly speaking a gram is a unit of mass. However, it can be
used as a unit of weight in the sense “however much a gram of matter weighs”,
which is about the same everywhere on the surface of the earth. If you think
about it, there are almost no circumstances when a person would use the word
“weight” and really mean weight. They do not care if the object being
referred to as weighing 100 pounds (or grams) is on the earth or on the moon –
what they are really doing is using “weight” to mean mass. Which is fine with
everybody, since everybody understands it the same way.”

thanks for weighing in too!! It’s really interesting to see how the various companies stack up. I think for the purposes here, the calibration from a simple kitchen scale is adequate to have a sense of how much care the companies have for its consumers. the new socks are lovely.

That popcorn is our favorite! as a matter of fact, one of the kids (aged 4 to 7) saw the picture and now all three are jumping up and down, begging for some It’s so cute and tiny! kind of like eating finger sandwiches instead of giant subs (or maybe I should just go pop some corn cause the jumping is getting a little crazy)

Humidity *does* make a huuuuge difference. I read somewhere (maybe the twisted sisters sock handbook, but don’t hold me to that — it’s early for me this morning) that a 4 oz bump of fiber can be 4 oz in a humid Iowa day, and lose as much as 10% of its weight after a day or two in Vegas.

I weigh my fibers for spinning, but go by yardage for skeins, since humidity doesn’t affect yardage. It’s scary to think that there might be people with pitchforks weighing skeins, especially with the god-awful humidity we get out this way in the summertime. (That hot, wet washcloth on your face? That’s the AIR.)

Given that BMFA is in Oregon, which traditionally has just slightly less rain than, say, a fish tank — it’s not that surprising that their weights would be a bit off. (And OMGOMGOMG….have you seen the ravens yet?! *swoon*)

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